Taranaki, in particular Hawera

We had been looking at settling in Gisbourne and when we visited there it looked just the size of place we though might suit us.We are also looking at the Taranaki area. New Plymouth, how big is it compared with a city in U.K. Hawera or Opunake or even Oakura look on the map to be of similar size.Anyone ever been to these places and give information.Also where can I download maps from? :roll:

Oh dear, you've done it now !
I'm known by my enemies as "Mr Map & Aerial Photos" :lol:

I've got loads of map, aerial pics etc links.

Visit my website (see below)
Click on New Zealand
Click on "Pictures & Maps"

If you want somewhere in the Canterbury region, I recommend the ecan site for aerial photos.

When you've looked through that lot, tell me whether the name is justified !!!!

Have fun :)

Steve

Hey y'all,

I am looking to find some information out about Taranaki from people who have actually been there. Much like Nyrem, I haven't visited there yet and would like to know if it is worth a look :icon_question:

How big is it in comparison to, say, Palmy North? Are the people nice? Is there a large population of expats there? Is there a lot to do in the area? What rugby team do they support?

I'm looking forward to your generous replies.

Dan-ish :icon_razz:

If you want some good map stuff:

http://www.wises.co.nz

Pretty good site!

Never been - but can tell you that we were most impressed by the Taranaki stand at the London Expo - the staff were friendly and practive without being pushy and were a great advert for the area!

Hi Nyrem & Dan,

We visited New Plymouth when we first got here when we were deciding where to settle. It's a lovely town, quite small but everything you could probably need (shop-wise) in the high street, as well as a few bars and cafes, and a supermarket or 2. The people seemed friendly (although we only stayed 1 night as we were on a whirlwind tour) and it's got a nice feel to the place. I think house-wise, there are few places to avoid, like Whitiera (not sure of the spelling there!) and maybe a few other areas, but the centre of NP and places like Fitzroy seemed nice. It's nowhere near as big as Palmerston North Dan, but it has most of the amenities you would need.

The beaches are stunning and, although they're black sand, they're good enough to sit out on in the sun I'd say, and there's lots of surf beaches close by too.

I reckon they'd support the Tarakani rugby team, cos there's signs up all over the place saying 'go the Naki!', but being a girl :icon_biggrin: , I'm not too sure whether thats the NPC or the other league... :icon_eek: icon_exclaim.gif

So all in all, we found New Plymouth to be a really nice place, and Mt Egmont is stunning.

However, it wasn't on our short list of places to consider settling because it's just [b:d3bd78fe86]so far away from anything[/b:d3bd78fe86]! It would be an ideal place if you want remoteness, peace and a quiet, slow paced way of life, which we do, but I also like to be near to a larger centre so that you can get the entertainment, big range of shops, things to do, job opportunites etc. This was our biggest concern - I think we would really have struggled to find 1 decent paying job out there, let alone 2!

Also, because it's stuck right out on the west coast, it takes ages to get to the nearest large town, ie Hamilton, Taupo or Wanganui/Palmerston North. You can't go through the Egmont National Park (or over the mountain of course! ::): ) you have2 go right round the edge which is a pain and takes quite a while! I think it took us 2 hours to get to Wanganui because although it doesn't look that far on the map, the roads are really crap and you can barely do 80k's cos there's great big potholes and divits all over the place. (Unless you want to wreck your car, then you can do 100k! :icon_rolleyes: ) One thing we wanted to do when we came over here is to take advantage of the country and head off for weekends away, but if we did that from NP, we'd be quite limited as to where we could realisticly go without taking hours to get there, and without having to fly.

As for the places you mentioned Nyrem, I can't help you I'm afraid, as we only visited New Plymouth, but I hope some of this info will be useful for you!

Hope this helps peeps!

Jod
:icon_cool:

[nellm]

Hi

I love Taranaki! We bought a house there last year and are moving over next summer.

NP is quit small, pop. around 60-70k, but as was mentioned it has everything you could need (unless you're used to London and want overcrowding and being jostled on the street!). The areas to avoid in NP are Marfell and Waitara, other areas are fine. Oakura is very up and coming, prices are really shooting up there (helped a little by Tom Cruise et al staying there while filming the last samurai.

Opunake is the nearest town to our house, it would be classed more as a village here, distinct seaside feel to it and has a fabulous little cafe on Tasman Street (the main Street) called 'The Sugar Juice Cafe'

Taranaki is a place where you can build sancastles (or surf) in the morning and throw snowballs (or ski) in the afternoon. For me it has everything and the drive along the surf highway is to die for (told hubby we have to get a convertable just for the drive into NP - dont know where we'll put the kids though!) with the sae on one side and Mount Taranaki on the other.

Hawera is fairly bustling, theres quite a bit of industry there, mainly based around the Dairy - Fonterra and the petro-chemical sites.

The TSB (Taranaki Savings Bank) is great - no charges on their account. Also can highly recommend Viv Scott at McDonalds Real Estate based in Opunake/Eltham and Robert England (solicitor) with Thomson O'Neil based in Eltham.

The Rugby team is the Warriors.

Here are a few useful Taranaki links:

http://www.opunake.com/

http://www.newplymouthnz.com/

http://www.taranakijobsnz.com/index.php

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dailyne...0a6002,00.html

http://www.eieio.co.nz/index.asp


Hope this fuels the imagination a bit - any more q's just fire away!

[slim]

We have lived in New Plymouth since july 2004. We bought a house here two months after arriving because we love it so much. email me on slim8589@yahoo.co.uk for more specific details from a new immigrant.